Mardi Gras 9/4-11/21 Somewhat Live Thoughts and Information

[KmomChicago]

2 hours ago, kwokpot said:

I personally didn't think it was an imposition. There were no fights or confrontations about masks. They weren't required in the pool or in the gym or thermal suite. Also not required anywhere out on the decks. 

 

 

2 hours ago, ClearwaterFlorida said:

Thanks for all info. Could you tell me if masks were a big turn off for cruise? Did they require them in gym or around the pool?

 For what it's worth, we didn't think they were a big problem either, especially since they are sort of expected in our day to day lives as well, and we haven't just stopped living because of this stupid pandemic.  In fact, we enjoyed our Mardi Gras cruise (August 7-14) so much that it actually reinforced how much we had missed it and we are now booked on Carnival Legend December 19.  It seems pretty obvious we will, at minimum, be wearing masks some of the time, have to get a Covid test before boarding, and really will have no improvement of the situation by then.  I posted a pic on our cruise of our handwashed masks drying in the shower stall on that little clothesline we used to use for swimsuits and underwear.  Changing times! If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

[kwokpot]

Post cruise summary:

 

As the first cruise since the pandemic shutdown Robert and I were a bit apprehensive about boarding a cruiseship during the Delta variant surge. Having said that we have already been travelling throughout the summer having been to Las Vegas twice and bi-monthly weekend trips to Atlantic City. As long as we continued to be cognizant of our surroundings and situations we felt there wasn't a logical reason not to proceed with this cruise.

 

Our whole trip proceeded without a hitch, with just a two and half hour departure delay from Philadelphia to Orlando being the only hiccup. Having been on a Carnival Casino Players Club Elite Level Cruise Offer and all the extra benefits that came with it made the trip all the better.

 

The Mardi Gras is a game changer ship for Carnival. While it's certainly not a perfect ship and there are many other ship designs on other cruiselines that best the Mardi Gras for me it's definitely the best ship in the Carnival fleet and I can't wait to sail on her again. To be honest there were many areas of the ship I didn't have the opportunity to use and enjoy, so that will have to be for the next time I sail on her. Here is a list, in no particular order, of my likes and dislikes of the Mardi Gras after sailing on her from 9/4-11/2021.

 

Likes:

* Beautiful contemporary design with enough design flourishes to avoid some of the blandness of the Vista Class ships.

* Tastefully designed themed areas that bring some fun and excitement as opposed to just a generic contemporary design aesthetic.

*A vast array of dining spots and cuisine choices with many being included in your cruisefare and without a surcharge. Special shoutouts to Street Eats, Big Chicken, Shawarma, Rudi's Seagrill. 

*The Grand Central multilevel atrium and event space is a brilliant innovation. It's midship location assure you'll always bypass it in your travels through the ship and potentially draw you in to what's going on at Center Stage, even if you hadn't planned on going there. 

*The Mardi Gras Theater has good sightlines with no columns anywhere to obstruct views.

*The multiple swimming pools allow options of location for pool use and spreads people out to various parts of the ship.

*Serenity Area is a huge space with a swimming pool and waterfall and both shady and sunning areas. With the vast amount of loungers I would imagine even if the ship was full you'll still be able to find somewhere to lay down.   

*Great new bars and lounges to have one of the many new and creative cocktails and enjoy the entertainment or just good conversation. 

*Cabin storage is plentiful and has new features to help store and organize your belongings.

*Cabin bathroom shower stall is large and the glass door is a vast improvement to the shower curtain. Hats off to the night light feature when the main bathroom light is turned off.

*Cabin lighting is plentiful and in the proper areas to adequately light the entire cabin.  

*The Cloud Nine Spa Thermal Suite was a nice, relaxing area to spend time in.

*The Fitness center was large and has adequate room and equipment for both cardio and strength training. 

*I found the Ropes course lots of fun and only wish it was longer with some more challenging obstacles.  

 

Dislikes:

* It was difficult navigating the ship at the stairwells on the decks with cabins. Unlike Carnival's previous ships there's no indication which side is even or odd (Or Port and Starboard) cabins, despite the cabins being laid out this way. 

*The door opening mechanisms in public spaces was not intuitive in how to use them and there were also inconsistencies on how they operated. Sometimes public doors would open automatically, sometimes you had to touch a little round switch, sometimes you had to wave your hand in front of a larger lighted panel, and sometimes you had to actually touch the larger lighted panel. It was annoying and didn't need to be this way.

*The Handicapped door switches were very confusing to operate. You have to wave your hand, then wait for the door to open, wait for it to close, then wave your hand once to electronically lock the door, then wave it again to unlock and open the door. In the seven days I was on the ship no one ever knew how to correctly operate any door with a handicapped switch, including employees.

*The main dining room, The Palm Restaurant, had no visual appeal. It didn't have an inviting ambiance that drew you into wanting to spend time in the space. 

*The cabin was tight in it's dimensions and the cabin bathroom even more so. I can see larger framed and taller people feeling claustrophobic in the cabins.

*Cloud Nine Spa had many maintenance issues that weren't addressed despite employees being notified of the situations.  What's more galling is that the ship has been floating around fully complete but empty of passengers for months and months. To have broken facilities is inexcusable considering the circumstances.

 

 Most of my dislikes are minor issues, but the cabin sizes may be a challenge for lots of cruisers. I spoke to many passengers who voiced that cabin size was their major complaint about the Mardi Gras.

 

As you can see there were many parts of the ship I failed to discuss which means that I didn't have time to use those areas or they just aren't my area of interest. The ship is very large and it's very easy to completely miss entire sections of the ship. 

 

Next up will be a more detailed examination of the Cloud Nine Spa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

Edited September 14, 2021 by kwokpot

[sanmarcosman]

On 9/12/2021 at 9:13 AM, evandbob said:

Indeed!  I appreciate the OP's effort and comments on this exceptional ship.!  Thank you, OP!!!!

 

Just a few comments of my own:

 

I loved the:

 

1) Glass shower door!  No darn plastic curtain!

 

2) The sliding (not hinged slamming) balcony door!!  Carnival finally joins the other cruise lines with this design improvement.

 

3) The balcony railings are no longer wooden, they are some coated white material that doesn't get hot, and spray or rain drops just slide right off.

 

4) The bright decor throughout the ship.  Looked more like Celebrity or MSC.

 

5) The BOLT was exhilarating. I went on the 1st port day and was the only one riding.  Definitely use the app to queue a time on a sea day when it gets crowded.

 

6) Speaking of the app, it was an easy way to "skip lines" for MDR meals.  Just check in on line, walk to the Palm MDR and right into Sea Day Brunch.

 

7) So many dining choices!  We enjoyed dinner at the Steakhouse (best meal all week, as usual), Rudi's was better than MDR food by just a bit, and Emeril's had great gumbo but so so jambalaya.  Of course, JMO, food is so subjective and YMMV.

 

8   Late dining in the MDR was more than half empty on the nights we did eat there.

 

9  We saw 6 different comedians on 6 different nights in Punchliners, plenty of adult laughs all around.  Family comedy was in Limelight Lounge, we didn't go there.

 

10  Mardi Gras is a game changer for Carnival and goes way beyond the concepts started in Vista and Horizon.  It will be my fav Carnival ship, and we've booked in again on a casino fare for Nov 2022.  I'll guess that Celebration will be just as good.

 

There were a few minor issues I didn't like, such as no diamond priority check in line or lounge, but I'll carp about those minor things in later posts.  Once again, thanks to the OP for his great review!!!

 

 

A review within a review.

[KmomChicago]

8 hours ago, kwokpot said:

Post cruise summary:

 

The Mardi Gras is a game changer ship for Carnival. While it's certainly not a perfect ship and there are many other ship designs on other cruiselines that best the Mardi Gras for me it's definitely the best ship in the Carnival fleet and I can't wait to sail on her again. 

 

Likes:

. Special shoutouts to Street Eats, Big Chicken

 

*The Grand Central multilevel atrium and event space is a brilliant innovation. It's midship location assure you'll always bypass it in your travels through the ship and potentially draw you in to what's going on at Center Stage, even if you hadn't planned on going there. 

 

*The Mardi Gras Theater has good sightlines with no columns anywhere to obstruct views.

 

I agree with both of these comments wholeheartedly and appreciated the planning and design of these two theatre spaces, one open, one enclosed.  Thank you Anthony - you added many good details here in your summary that I noticed as well but didn't comment on at the time.  I bold underlined several where I had the exact same thoughts and added a couple of my own to some of yours below. 

 

 

8 hours ago, kwokpot said:

*Serenity Area is a huge space with a swimming pool and waterfall and both shady and sunning areas. With the vast amount of loungers I would imagine even if the ship was full you'll still be able to find somewhere to lay down.   

 

*Great new bars and lounges to have one of the many new and creative cocktails and enjoy the entertainment or just good conversation. 

 

 

*Cabin bathroom shower stall is large and the glass door is a vast improvement to the shower curtain. 

 

8 hours ago, kwokpot said:

*I found the Ropes course lots of fun and only wish it was longer with some more challenging obstacles.  

 

Dislikes:

 

*The door opening mechanisms in public spaces was not intuitive in how to use them and there were also inconsistencies on how they operated. Sometimes public doors would open automatically, sometimes you had to touch a little round switch, sometimes you had to wave your hand in front of a larger lighted panel, and sometimes you had to actually touch the larger lighted panel. It was annoying and didn't need to be this way.

 

*The Handicapped door switches were very confusing to operate. You have to wave your hand, then wait for the door to open, wait for it to close, then wave your hand once to electronically lock the door, then wave it again to unlock and open the door. In the seven days I was on the ship no one ever knew how to correctly operate any door with a handicapped switch, including employees.  (From KMom - I would like to add, the public restrooms were poorly marked and many had too few stalls. Also, to your point, there was one single restroom that had a sink and wall hiding the toilet, and I often used it with the room door open because I got tired of waiting for it to close and couldn't figure out how to lock it anyway. 🙂 Never had anyone walk in on me. And yes as you said, by the end of the cruise I still hadn't mastered these doors)

 

*The cabin was tight in it's dimensions and the cabin bathroom even more so. I can see larger framed and taller people feeling claustrophobic in the cabins.  (From Kmom - Definitely agree with this. I am not a fan of the room design with the bump out for the bed either toward the far wall or toward the cabin door alternating down the hallway.  The walk space in front of the sofa is therefore a good foot narrower.  Designers might think we barely notice the difference, but I disagree and they may have reached the point of critical mass with these cabin sizes.  Just had to squeeze out six more square feet, eh?)

 

 

 Most of my dislikes are minor issues, but the cabin sizes may be a challenge for lots of cruisers. I spoke to many passengers who voiced that cabin size was their major complaint about the Mardi Gras.

 

As you can see there were many parts of the ship I failed to discuss which means that I didn't have time to use those areas or they just aren't my area of interest. The ship is very large and it's very easy to completely miss entire sections of the ship.  (So true!  Had the same issue on Oasis of the Seas and what a great problem to have).

 

Next up will be a more detailed examination of the Cloud Nine Spa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

[HxFx]

16 hours ago, ClearwaterFlorida said:

Thanks for all info. Could you tell me if masks were a big turn off for cruise? Did they require them in gym or around the pool?

I did not find the mask requirements overwhelming (and I almost cancelled because of it). Of course, many folks may have thought the masks were required in all areas indoors (outside of your cabin). They were not (only “strongly recommended”). The areas that were required were clearly marked “Masks required beyond this point”. Those were in the areas off of the walkways (stores, restaurants, etc.) and the elevators.

 

You did not have to wear the masks walking around the halls or stairs (unless maybe if you walked past the 2 for $20 t-shirt sales in the middle of the walkway, that was the most crowded place I saw!)  There were many people wearing masks where not required but there was no confrontation with those that did not wear one in the “recommended” only areas.

[kwokpot]

On 9/12/2021 at 5:17 PM, HxFx said:

I really liked their French 75, made with cognac instead of gin!

Thanks how I had it!

[JaniceB]

Thanks for sharing such great information.

[Coochuck]

Great reading your posts.  We are driving to Port Canaveral from the Philadelphia Area next Thursday evening and boarding the Mardi Gras on 9/25.  Really looking forward to seeing all the new bells and whistles the ship has to offer.  Again thanks for such fantastic reporting on the ship.  One question...since we are driving...is it best to drop off our bags then go and park the car?

[kwokpot]

5 minutes ago, Coochuck said:

Great reading your posts.  We are driving to Port Canaveral from the Philadelphia Area next Thursday evening and boarding the Mardi Gras on 9/25.  Really looking forward to seeing all the new bells and whistles the ship has to offer.  Again thanks for such fantastic reporting on the ship.  One question...since we are driving...is it best to drop off our bags then go and park the car?

Thank you for the compliments. Yes, you should definitely drop off the bags first. As you drive into the parking garage on the right hand side about 300 feet in is the luggage drop off. After that you follow the ramp up to the parking area. Within the parking garage you taking the elevators to Level 3, which then leads to a walkway to the Terminal 3 entrance.

[ninjacat123]

On 9/13/2021 at 6:17 PM, kwokpot said:

I personally didn't think it was an imposition. There were no fights or confrontations about masks. They weren't required in the pool or in the gym or thermal suite. Also not required anywhere out on the decks. 

I was on Magic Sept 4-9 and worked out in the gym.  There was a sign stating "Please use mask unless exercising at high intensity".  I do strength training broken up by 30 second bursts of cardio (running in place) and didn't wear a mask.  I would say at least 50% of the people working out were wearing masks.  As soon as I was done with my workout, I masked up.

BTW, I am inspired to get in more sessions at the gym because of you!  Thanks for your detailed and well-written report!